metadigital

I've heard a competing version of the origin of "bog standard", apparently from the time of the European colonization of Africa, when the basic requirement for goods was that they were a minimum of British or German standards, which became BoG. In the neuroscientist anthropologist Dr Terrence Deacon's groundbreaking book on The Symbolic Species, which is subtitled The Co-Evolution of Language and the Human Brain, he argues that languages have undergone evolution under the Baldwinian effect, too, so that languages that are harder to learn have less chance of survival versus those that are easier. Excellent book, btw, I recommend it very highly.

Heh, Ultima ]I['s "Marks and Cards" ... I remember my friend got all the marks and cards, then realized that he had to get the marks on ALL the characters in the party ... boy did that suck! I suppose the corollary to this topic is "RPGs that you have finished through gritted teeth". :D

Oblivion has radioactive grass?

Unless it suffers a cold death (expands too fast for gravity to pull it all back into another crunch). And we still don't know if Dark Matter and Dark Energy really DO make up 75% of the mass of the universe.

Because you like to wear leather pants and reverse comb your lubricated hair ?

What don't you understand, Bok? If the universe is infinite, then there should be stars in every direction (distance is irrelevant, except to work out time, but we'll get to that later). If there are stars in every direction, then there should be light in every direction. Right? The only reason that there isn't light in every direction is that the universe isn't old enough: in an infinite amount of time, the sky will be white with light because there WILL be stars in every direction.

There is another consideration, too: aristocracy (and royalty in extremis) gain rank much faster than others (call it a hangover from when the aristocracy paid for their own regiments), so a member of the royal family wouldn't be a grunt (at all) for much time ... the fact that both the Princes are serving as soldiers is pretty amazing in itself. I'd have expected them to be made Officers of some level beyond skirmishes almost before they passed basic training. After all, they are "born to command". (Yes, I am aware that in order to command it is necessary to learn to follow, but in my experience Britain isn't. ;p )

Blade Runner (Director's Cut): I love the incidental details in this film, even moreso after reading What If Our World Is Their Heaven?. I just noticed the first time we see Deckard, sitting across from the noodle stand that he crosses through the rain to get to ... magnificent.

*cookie*

Depends if all the sewerage has been flushed away or not ...

Yes. Though you lose points for not explaining it in a sentence. The answer I was looking for is: "Because the universe isn't infinitely old, dummy."

You can't avoid people, even if you don't work in customer service directly. After all, doctors have to deal with patients, bosses have to deal with employees, travellers have to deal with customs officers and etcetera and vice versa. I tend to be (when I work in a service capacity ) EVEN MORE polite when someone isn't.

Let's just keep the topic about the topic, and not about the topic starter, please.

If the universe is infinite, why is the sky mostly black?

Sounds more like CN I was going to say "bedlam".

Nah, we're already into hypermodernism.

What? Deekin is innocent! He didn't want to grow dragon wings ... "

Me likey the "overchannelling" talent, Sammael. Heaven's Arrow is good: is that your innovation, or did you purloin it from a book?

Why wouldn't you spend a hundred bucks on a new mobo, out of the five hundred for a video card?

10 meter tower built over a sink hole.

In industries where margins are tight and customer loyalty can be a deciding factor, then service will be important. That sounds more like a personal problem. If you let one person ruin your day, and your service, then you probably should explore an alternative line of work. Working with customers always presents an opportunity for a customer to give you a hard time. Yes, some people are just jerks, but at the same time, that guy snapping at you could just as easily be some other guy that had his day shot because some twit at HIS work put him in a sour mood for the rest of the day. Also sounds like a stress management issue: if one has a residual amount of stress, then it takes less stress in a situation to push one over the threshold into anger. Doesn't matter how slow she was/is, that is the perfect manner to handle the register. One can be over-qualified for a job ... People are people. You can't change other people, so just be the person you want to be (hopefully that is the best person you can be). If someone is a jerk, then that is their problem. Really. If you are a good server, then you will give opportunities for your customers to interact in an efficient and mutually beneficial manner. Some people are looking for something else besides a simple transaction, though; more an excuse to vent some other frustration in their life. I spent some time as a croupier ... you meet all sorts of people on both sides of a gaming table, so I have a broad sample of personality types that I have seen; invariably the more troublesome people are bringing baggage into the transaction. Just like an oncology doctor not going to the funerals of their patients, you have to remain at arm's length from the public and do your job. Who knows, you might inspire someone (even if it's not the current person at the head of the line).

Fixed!

... And so not much point in keeping the topic open.

How does this affect the forum aversely? Just continue to post, but please use the spoiler tags to prevent spoiling the game for anyone who hasn't finished playing it yet. Doesn't seem to be terribly difficult to deal with.